Known wind direction adjusters include one that is disposed at a wind outlet for blowing air in an air conditioner used in a vehicle such as an automobile. Such a wind direction adjuster is also called an air conditioning blower, an air outlet, a ventilator or a register, for example, and is installed at each part of a vehicle such as an instrument panel or a center console and makes a contribution to improving the cooling and heating comfort performance.
There is a known configuration for such a wind direction adjuster in which the adjuster is formed in a round shape, for example, and changes the concentration and spreading states of wind by causing multiple louvers to turn in conjunction with one another. Examples of such a configuration include one in which a bevel gear is coupled to an operation knob turnably provided along the center axis of a cylindrical grill, and multiple louvers including bevel gears to mesh with the bevel gear are arranged to set their turning axes to the radiation direction (radial direction), so that the louvers are turned in conjunction with one another via turning of the operation knob (see, e.g., Patent Literature (hereinafter, referred to as “PTL”) 1).
In addition, the following configuration is also known in which a square tube operation unit is supported movably in the forward and rearward direction along the center axis of a cylindrical housing, for example, and pinions provided to the turning axes of four louvers are set in mesh with racks provided to four surfaces of the operation unit so that these louvers are turned simultaneously with forward and rearward movement of the operation unit. In this configuration, the ventilation resistance is also reduced by preventing turbulence flow by covering the meshed portion of the racks and pinions with a cover (see, e.g., PTL 2).
However, the configurations mentioned above both involve coupling of the gears and thus require a high part accuracy, and their assembly operation performance is not necessarily favorable. For this reason, another configuration to avoid cost increases is required.
Moreover, in order to smoothly operate gears coupled with one another, the gears need to be larger in size, which causes an increase in the ventilation resistance and/or a reduction in the degree of freedom for design.
Regarding this point, the following configuration is known in which a bearing portion is provided at the center axis portion of a cylindrical housing, and multiple louvers are disposed radially while being axially supported turnably between an outer frame portion of the housing and the bearing portion. In addition, guide bearing portions provided to the respective louvers in a protruding manner are engaged with guide portions which are cam grooves of a link unit formed as a separate unit and disposed on a downstream side of the housing movably in the forward and rearward direction along the axis direction. In this configuration, the louvers are thus turned simultaneously by forward and rearward movement of the link unit (see, e.g., PTL 3).
Although this configuration requires no meshing of gears, the link unit as large as the housing moves forward and rearward. For this reason, the configuration involves a large actuation space and a limitation on the adoptable layout. Moreover, another configuration is required that prevents a limitation on the oscillation angle otherwise caused by the link unit in contact with a downstream side duct when the housing oscillates.